Trick or Treat!

Since we know we will eventually get the call,even though we don't know when, we spend a lot of time reflecting on the changes that will come into our lives. Today is Halloween and of course regardless of your feelings on it- children love dressing up and getting candy. Next year,I will have a little person or persons with me when I answer the door to hand out candy or I will actually have to go Trick or Treating with children in tow. But until that time gets here, my favorite little trick or treater came over to show me her costume and get a few pieces of candy.

Ellis Land Can Be Pretty Scary at Halloween!

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and wait...

Today our church congregation, led by our pastor Rev. Ellis, walked to the site where our new church will be built. It was a gorgeous fall day for a stroll down Minnieville Road.

While we wait...

There are tons of things we need to be doing while we wait for our call. We need to clean out our garage and basement to make way for all of the things children bring into a house.

But are we??.....Of course not!
We celebrated dad's 80th Birthday on September 8.
We all can only hope to look as good when we are 80!

I had the pleasure of serving as the Mistress of Ceremonies for the event.

It was nice to see his brothers and sisters together honoring their dad. We all wished his mom was well enough to attend the celebration.
We know many people our age who have lost one or both of their parents. We are truly blessed to have parents that are still with us.

Mesgana Dancers

Well, we've been waiting for 4 months...
While we wait for our referral we continue to read and learn about the beauty of the Ethiopian culture. I probably have more Ethiopian children's books than a native Ethiopian. On August 11, 2007, the day before our 18th wedding anniversary we went to see the Mesgana Dancers at George Washington University in DC. They were wonderful! Mesgana is the Amharic word for gratitude. Amharic is one of the many languages spoken in Ethiopia. The Mesgana dancers are a group of twelve students from the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund program. The COEEF is a non profit foundation that sponsors girls so they are afforded the opportunity to attend school. Opportunities for girls are limited in rural East Africa, epecially in education. Just think the amount of money we spend on one outfit will pay tutition, uniform and school supplies for a child for one year!

Enjoy the performance!

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Wait, Wait, Waiting...

So how long will it take? The agency tells us that once our dossier is approved it takes anywhere from 6-8 months to get a referral. We have requested a male infant under 12 months old but we are open to twins or a sibling group of an infant and a child no older than 4. Once we receive a referral we wait for a travel date and clearance to fly to Ethiopia. While there, we will stay a week in the guest house connected to the orphanage.

So while we wait, we ask that you keep us in your prayers. We have been married for 18 years and this is truly going to change our lives. But we know who our strength comes from and we know that God has guided this entire process because only He could have made this decision possible for us.

Why Ethiopia??

Why not??

During the summer of 2006, we watched the movies Hotel Rwanda and the Constant Gardner. The visual images of the children left behind to fend for themselves for some reason touched our hearts and minds. Now it is not like we didn't know the plight of some of the children in Africa. We have seen the Feed the Children late night infomercials for years, and actually we usually turn the channel but for some reason this time, our hearts were touched. We started discussing the plight of the world’s orphans especially children in Africa. In July 2006 we went to an interest meeting at an international adoption agency. The agency happened to have a program in the African nation of Ethiopia.
In our research we found out that Ethiopia on average has more than 4.5 million orphans! Even though there are many children that need homes in the US, we felt the life circumstances of US born children give them a much better chance at even the most basic survival. In Ethiopia, orphaned, abandoned, or relinquished children may not have access to medical care or proper nutrition, and the potential outcomes for their lives are much more dire.
Not only was there a great need for adoptive parents but they are known for having a relatively straightforward and predictable adoption process, lower costs than other countries (even though none of the costs are low) and available infants. The process used to be faster but more and more people are choosing to adopt from Africa.

We have always heard- No Test~ No Testimony... and that is true. This decision on how to bring children into our lives was truly a TEST. For the test we are thankful because it caused us to stop focusing on the trivial things in life. ( Even though for one of us, it is still a tad bit hard to remember ~ it's not about me...

We truly believe God needed to bring His scriptures to life to draw us closer to Him. As we think about the birth parents that will allow us to raise their children we truly understand the unselfish nature of God when he gave his only begotten Son to us to save us from our sins.

Many people wonder but are afraid to ask… will the child be healthy? Is it possible the baby will be HIV+ or have AIDS?
When the babies are brought to the orphanage they are immediately tested for AIDS and other diseases (Hepatitis, etc.) and “quarantined” to secure the health of the other children in the orphanage. That blood work is repeated 3 months later for verification. In addition to that, parents can order independent tests to be analyzed by their pediatrician stateside. Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of children who do have AIDS in Africa, who are not being adopted. Once it is determined that a child is HIV positive, the child is taken to an AIDS orphanage. After malnutrition, the most commonly reported health problem in adoptable orphans is a simple stomach virus that can be treated with antibiotics and parasites .

Aren't there black children that need homes in the U.S.?

Yes, there are but we were not led to adopt in the United States.

In 2005 we started the adoption process with a public agency in our state through the foster care system. We attended months of classes and had begun the homestudy process. Each class discussed the situations we might encounter by adopting from the foster care system. Some of the children who are in foster care are children who have experienced abuse or neglect at the hands of their parents and have been removed from their homes. These days many single mothers decide to parent their children and we were told that it was unlikely that we get a child under the age of 2. The biggest “restriction” on parents adopting infants within the U.S. is that only 1.4 percent of pregnant, single women place their babies for adoption (National Survey of Family Growth, 2002). The majority of children in care available for adoption are 7 or older. The first priority of foster care is reunification of the child(ren) with the biological family, and children are frequently in foster care for two years before parental rights are terminated and children are available for adoption.

Domestic infant adoption through a private agency was another option, but it is quite competitive and these days there are far more families wanting to adopt than there are infant children. The process is quite different. Many agencies now advocate open adoptions where birth parents have regular contact with their children. Being first time parents, we didn’t particularly favor this option. Adoptive parents have to prepare Dear Birthmother letters/portfolios to win the hearts of a mother who wants to relinquish her child. This process is unpredictable , you are in competition with other families and ultimately the birthmother could change her mind.